Drones 3-28-2016

28, March 2016           Drones

General Michael Hayden’s recent statement,  “drones really work” needs to be vigorously challenged. The program is mired in secrecy developed on the false premise that it removes the necessity of having ‘boots on the ground’. We as a nation have assumed the right of violating a country’s sovereignty and killing perceived enemies, seemingly unconcerned of the probably death of innocent civilians. The program is illegal and highly flawed, and depends on the skill or lack thereof remote operators who with click of a mouse can vaporize perceived enemies. One can only imagine the horror and despair and seething anger of innocent victims killed by human errors. The drone program has received little Congressional oversight and has greatly expanded under the Obama administration. The program is conducted according to secret rules with no accountability.

The drone operators have sent a joint letter to the President expressing their profound reservations of the validity of the program. Assuaged with guilt, many of the operators are suffering from PTSD. The remote assassination program makes us less safe and needs to be halted. We have created an extremely dangerous precedent. It is only time when our enemies develop the same technology and begin to target U.S. cities and our people. An International Legal Counsel for Human Rights First said it more succinctly, ‘Intentionally using lethal force against an individual for being near a target is a war crime’.